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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2009)
Smoke Signals 9 NOVEMBER 1,2009 Culture Committee holds enrichment program . . ..... 'I ! . i . -r-J - t - 1 j i-A . T If r - &m&tu;;...... ,.-- f f Photo by Ron Karten Tribal member Dakota Ross, 8, works on the stitching for a medicine bag. His mother, Tribal member Sarah, is helping, out of sight of the camera. By Ron Karten Smoke Signals staff writer The Culture Committee, led by Tribal Elder Kathleen Provost, has been stitching together a cultural enrichment program for Tribal members and the community for some time. "The idea had been in process since Pat Allen was chair of Cul ture Committee," said Tribal Elder and Culture Committee Vice Chair Betty Bly. "We've talked about it for a long, long time. The plan was to do this at every change of season." "We call it a self-enhancement encampment to prepare for winter," Provost said. Finally, on the weekend of Oct. 16-18, they had the tents and the teepees, the cattails and the mate rials for medicine bags all brought together, and everything cooper ated except the weather. Provost's husband, lifelong com munity member Don Hendricks, called the rain, "All kinds of beauti ful medicine coming out of the sky." In the end, 77 people, 21 Tribal members, had come and gone over the three-day weekend. Saturday morning, it was light ning and thunder, but by afternoon, about a dozen adults and children had convened at the Tribally-owned Bailey House to make medicine bags and weave coasters and small mats out of cattails. ' Community member Misty Thors gard "gathered the cattails from right in this area," said Provost. Tribal member Madeline Ain sworth, 8, held up her medicine bag and described what she learned making it: "Cool, awesome. I deco rated it, beaded it, put markers on it." "She learned that needles hurt," said her mother, Tribal member Shawn Hostler. "You put in it something close to your heart," said Tribal member and Junior Miss Grand Ronde Na koosa Moreland. "You put something secret in it,", said Ainsworth, "and bring it to a secret land." Tribal members Sarah Ross and her children, 8-year-old Dakota and 7-year-old Madison, also made medicine bags in the afternoon. Nakoosa's mother, Tribal member CeCe Kneeland, also was on hand to teach the stitches involved. It wasn't the crowd that the Cul ture Committee had envisioned, but it was a cultural afternoon, for mal enough to learn about cattails and medicine bags and informal enough to still run with a big black dog named Chopper all around the house. The centerpiece of the weekend for Provost was the attendance of Gerald Primeaux (Yankton Sioux), who came out from Portland as he has for cultural events over the last four years. Primeaux, raised traditionally in South Dakota, is a member of the Wisdom of the Elders, an award winning musician and he speaks in many venues about Native cul ture. He talked about ceremonies and taking time out "to look in the air, to see the four directions," he said. "We pray for the Grand Ronde people to go back to the traditional ways," said Provost. "The first step in healing our selves," said Primeaux's compan ion, Maura St. Martin (Cowlitz), "is praying for our ancestors." St. Martin has ancestors who died here in Grand Ronde. "I think of it," said Primeaux, "as kind of like lighting the fire." There is a sweat lodge behind the Bailey House, and many partici pated during the weekend. The rains came and went Sat urday morning, and the sun came out. D - '$mW 1 " ' ' i- -. ':. '. aliGocmeibs 2 Trio . :Y ... . ''v .t Christmas 'H&rty 00 A0.Ml0 JOWL TcpoOswdO 000 l --"XT' 4 V t3tD -1) tte36 gtedj vgfflD gfentB amnap GHC (SCUD (MnHRfcD (jliEKil G33SG) QniGiitimin) dim) fffesii o) (Christ rnaslSttocCii ng 1 Pccorci ng , Co ncot: i . 3 ) Catogoriosxagol51 2 and 11 3-09 J'-ai lBringyourtockingpffoaSy;dcc Jt r - r -i " - jr- -'n ; - decorated) DcadlincVI 2P.n.Hiw.'cntrioG) L o A nt 2nd f3rd fnrizQ for. onch cnftnnnnrj l O All inHnn Hnrinlnnc mill rWCirVl! J'7. ....... . Ploaso bring a gift of socks, or gloves or mittons for local childron and or f ostcr chi Id ron Ad cttated by Oofq VjWfff
